Back Injury Could Force Florian Retirement

Florian, who last fought in October in a losing bid for Jose Aldo’s featherweight title, told the Boston Herald that a herniated disc in his lower back could mean the end of his career. Florian said that two separate doctors have advised him that retirement is the best option.

“It’s possible, unfortunately,” Florian said. “I’ve kind of been going back-and-forth with some of the doctors, so it’s possible. I’m going to see. As of right now, obviously I can’t compete and train like I was at all. I’m just kind of doing what I can and hoping that things heal up and get better. I’m just kind of in a holding pattern. That’s why I decided to do this commentary for the time being and take this next six months to really heal up and try to make some money on the side. It sucks. The last couple of months I’ve just been figuring out what’s going on and what I’m going to do.”

It’s sad to see the possible ending of a career due to injury. You never want to go out that way, because it’s not on your own terms. But the silver lining for Florian is that he’s building up a nice little secondary career as a broadcaster, and he’s good enough at the job that it could become his primary source of income.

Florian used to co-host ESPN’s MMA Live on a regular basis, back before ESPN stopped caring about the UFC when the FOX deal happened. Since then, he’s gone on to become the co-host for “UFC Tonight,” the UFC’s weekly news show that airs on Fuel TV.
There’s also a possibility that he’ll become Jon Anik’s permanent booth partner for Fuel broadcasts. Anik has spent the past two months going practicing his play by play game with a variety of partners, including Stephan Bonnar and Frank Mir. I have to believe that, should Florian indeed choose to retire, the job will be his. He won’t have any conflicting issues with training camps for fights and thus will be able to dedicate his time to his broadcasting career.

If this is the end of Florian’s career, it’s a sad day. He never became a champion like he wanted, but Florian always came to fight and was one of the more popular guys on the roster during the UFC expansion over the past ten years.